Eagles freshman JaQuan Adams scored to tie the game at 2-2 and Eagles senior Jakob Lowrance scored to tie the game at 4-4. The highlight reel ends there for CM.

“When you don’t play defense, you give up baseline, when you don’t box out, you don’t make any attempt to box out, when every other pass that you make is deflected, when you shoot probably 25 percent from the field,” CM coach Doug Carey said, “we got about what we deserved.”

Lowrance, a 6-8 senior, made 7 of 12 shots and finished with 14 points and five rebounds to lead CM. The rest of the Eagles combined to make just 8 of 34 shots (24 percent) and CM committed 19 turnovers against a Knights squad featuring players standing 6-foot-8, 6-7, 6-5 and 6-4 in its top six.

“There were times when we couldn’t make three passes in a row without one being deflected,” Carey said of CM’s struggle against Mater Dei’s halfcourt trap. “That’s partially because they are long and lanky, but we’ve got to be 10-times better than that.”

Mater Dei blistered the Eagles by shooting 70 percent (19 of 27) from the field in the first half. The Knights were 4 of 6 from 3-point range and committed just four turnover by halftime.

“Our philosophy is get up and try to create some easy opportunities,” Mater Dei coach Ron Schadegg said. “We’ve got some pretty good length and some decent speed, and when we can create turnovers and make shots, a lot of good things happen.

“We were getting easy baskets, so you would hope we can convert.”

The Knights had three players in double figures by halftime and 6-2 senior Ben Lampe led the way with 21 points while making 10 of 14 shots. Sam Toennies, a 6-1 senior guard, scored 16 points and 6-7 senior Zach Haake had 12 while hitting 3 of 5 from the arc.

Mater Dei’s lead was 66-26 when the last of the regulars left the court with 5:53 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“We were a little scared of their size,” Carey said. “We were a little scared of their No. 10 ranking in the state. And it showed. We didn’t play very well. … It’s over. We just have to be ready to go Friday against Waterloo.”

CM was coming off a third-place finish at the Litchfield Tournament secured by an 80-73 victory over Mount Zion. It was the Eagles’ highest-scoring game in at least five years, but run-and-gun is not standard operating procedure for CM.

“We were just fortunate to win Saturday,” Carey said. “We’re not going to outscore people. Hopefully, our guys will realize this now.”

Mater Dei hopes to make a run in the Class 2A postseason bracket, but the Knights were stung by losses to 2A powers Teutopolis and Nashville at last week’s Nashville Tourney.

“We struggled against good 2A teams – Teutopolis, Nashville – and we’ve got to make some adjustments and improve in some areas,” Schadegg said.

All of the Knights’ other defeats came against large-school foes Edwardsville, Belleville Althoff (twice), Carbondale and St. Louis CBC considered among the region’s best.

The halfcourt trap that broke CM is a weapon Mater Dei re-introduced after it yielded limited benefits in season-opening losses to Edwardsville, Althoff and Carbondale at the Highland Tourney.

“We were playing some pretty good competition so we weren’t able to be successful in it, so we backed off,” Schadegg said. “We recommitted to it about the last seven games and since then we’re getting more comfortable and our coverage is better, our rotation is better and that’s when we tend to be better, when we can play this style.”